Lend a Helping Hand
A Short Story
My hands where moist and shaking from the nerves; I held them in front of me, fidgeting to calm myself down. Dad looked over at me and noticed, "You're going to do great Mi Hijita" he said while he held my hands up to his lips and kissed them reassuringly. I love it when he calls me that; it means my little daughter in Spanish, I guess just the fact that he tries small words in my native language is a sign of how much he loves me, and I love him for that.
Next to me Andres, my boyfriend, noticed also and when dad let go of my hand, he spun me to face him. He looked in to my light brown eyes and tugged my curly hair behind my ears; I always calm down when I look in to his dark brown eyes. "You will be amazing Mi Amor" he said with his strong accent, "Just remember what I told you and you will be great" he whispered in my ear. I remembered what he told me this morning after I read the speech to him for the hundredth time, 'Just stay true to your words and everybody will listen'. He then kissed me and hugged me tightly; I opened my eyes to see his mom, Jen, looking at us with loving eyes.
At that moment the presenter came out on the stage thanking the previous speaker. "And now ladies and gentleman, we have a special speaker for you. This young lady will be attending our school this fall majoring in International Relations; which we believe suits her perfectly. Without further ado, please welcome Margarita to the podium."
I heard clapping as I looked at my family one more time and slowly walked over to the podium. I got there and put my speech on the tray and raised my head to look at the audience. There must be at least 500 people sitting and standing there. My heart beat faster and my hands got sweaty again. I looked over to dad, Andres and Jen on the side of the stage and calmed down a bit. I smiled at them and took a deep breath and remembered why I was doing this.
I looked up at the audience again and smiled, "Good Evening ladies and gentleman, my name is Margarita Garcia Levy" my last name came out an octave to high at the end. I chuckled and looked at my audience, "Sorry I guess I'm a little nervous". There were some chuckles from them but mostly, there was a lot of encouraging smiles.
I felt some relieve and decided to continue. "As you all know we are here today to talk to you about ways we can help others in need around the world. I heard all of the previous presentations and they were all amazing, but mine will be a bit different, you see in order for me to talk to you about how to help those in need, all I have to do is tell you my story.
"With my families support, today you will learn how just one person, one act of kindness can change several lives in one lifetime." I looked over at my family and smiled again. "Today you will not only hear my story, but my dad's and others also.
"My dad Michael Levy was born to a very wealthy family. He had all he ever wanted while he was growing up, cars, toys, friends; but the thing that my dad always told me that he was most proud of, was being able to travel the world with his family helping others. His mother and father did work everywhere and always took their children with them to teach them and show them to appreciate what they had.
"When my dad was 21, he met and fell in love with the love of his life, Arielle. They had a beautiful wedding and continued their work together. Arielle was 4 months pregnant with their first child when they were in a remote village in Africa helping doctors with the sick children. They didn't know she was pregnant at the time, and if they did, they would not have been there. She contracted Malaria and due to their location they could not get her to a doctor on time. She and the child passed away due to complications.
"My dad grieved for two years not being able to get out of bed. One day he decided that enough was enough and he remembered all the people he has helped throughout his live that have lost everything and they still keep living. In a way her death made him stronger.
